The proverbial fox and wolf will never admit that they ate the chickens, but they will stealthily seek to distract and then devour us as a part of their next meal.

In a society that is rife with deliberate distractions and pitfalls, we must endeavor to set our political objectives in the people’s struggle and stay focused on them. Let us remember that this capitalist system is steeped in, and based upon, a crude form of 21st century ‘social Darwinism,’ i.e. the survival of the nastiest, which is the de facto modis operandi of the corporate government.

When this corporate government, with the constant complicity of the corporate media, manufactures, emphasizes, and directs the attention of everyday people to supposed matters of import, we can be assured that the well honed bait-and-switch strategy is being utilized against us. It is meant to divert. This strategy, which includes using disinformation against the people, cannot be effective if we consistently define and disseminate the narrative of everyday Black, Brown, Red, White, and Yellow people, and stay focused upon that. The instant that we accept the narrative of the Democratic Party foxes, the Republican Party wolves, and the corporate media, we succumb to a deadly, time-tested trap. To reiterate: Our duty and responsibility is to define and disseminate the narrative [i.e. the reality, versus disinformation and myth] pertaining to the struggle of everyday people.

Disinformation and concomitant distraction are among the single most potent weapons of the corporate government and its propaganda wing - the corporate media. But we must meticulously avoid being distracted and thereby neutralized by being sucked in by, and focusing upon, disinformation.

Disinformation & Discreditation: Tactics of Distraction

The tactics and strategies of disinformation on the part of governmental authorities and the media are, and have long been, used against the ‘American’ people en mass, as well as against organizations and individuals. This is nothing new.

The hideously infamous U.S. government program (known as COINTELPRO) to “frame, discredit, imprison, murder” and otherwise “neutralize” political activists is still, more than ever, very much ineffecttoday under an array of seemingly innocuous sounding names. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of these tactics is directly proportional to the consciousness, or lack thereof, of everyday people.

The purpose of these above-mentioned tactics and strategies is simple: To distract,“disrupt,” immobilize [i.e. “neutralize”] the people’s struggle and those most active in it. Once we grasp this fact, it becomes increasingly difficult for these tactics and strategies to succeed. We must not be oblivious to these tactics and strategies. However, we must never allow them to distract or immobilize us. We must recognize these tactics for what they are: An indication of government paranoia and repression, and our own growing political effectiveness.

Defining & Disseminating Our - The People’s - Narrative

We must tell the people’s story, convey the people’s narrative, as it has really unfolded and is unfolding every single day. This is a crucial part of our political organizing. Each one teach one - individually and collectively. We must expose and emphasize the hypocrisy and subterfuge of the government and the increasing pain of the everyday people, in addition to creating and presenting the alternatives needed to alleviate that pain once and for all. We must practice being creative revolutionaries.

We must seriously organize, and in so doing, constantly make it crystal clear to, for, and with the people that, for example; joblessness, the U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, etc., racism, judicial injustice and the growing rates of incarceration, home foreclosures, environmental degradation of Mother Earth, and ongoing corporate Wall Street glut, etc. are alldirectly and inextricably, systemically intertwined, and are in fact the fundamental reasons for the terrible pain being experienced by everyday people in this nation and throughout the world.

We know that the “news” media’s job is to misinform, omit, and distract; and it has never, nor will it ever, promote or disseminate an honest people’s narrative. The same can be said for the many ‘academic’ plantations in this nation, which are essentially institutions of and for mis-education. Thus, it is incumbent upon us to uncompromisingly and consistently disseminate the people’s narrative.

No Gurus in the People’s Struggle

Each and every one of us in this people’s struggle who are committed to bringing about real systemic change is equally important. Ours is a collective struggle, and there are no political gurus in it.

Each of us, irrespective of color or gender, brings experiences, ideas, and perspectives to this struggle. Each of us has common sense and the potential for being creative revolutionaries. None of us can bring about genuine systemic change by ourselves.

Certainly, there are those among us who have garnered experience in this struggle and have set courageous examples. But they are not political gurus; they are long time freedom fighters and are respected as such.

The effectiveness of this, the people’s struggle, is rooted in, among other things, our collective strength. We must never lose sight of this. No one of us is as smart, strong, or as creative as all of us.

Moving Forward

It is obvious that we are in a society which is neither ‘post racial’ nor ‘color blind.’ Indeed, the very term ‘color blind’ is but a code word for the intensifying and cloaked institutional racism and economic exploitation; which is being systematically andsystemically reinforced by the corporate controlled Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves of all colors.

A mythical vampire cannot be reformed to stop sucking the blood of everyday people, and neither can this very real, blood-sucking, capitalist system. It must be systemicallyreplaced.

For too long, the pain of the everyday people has been shamelessly pimped by these systemic, economic vampires; and the most effective way to break this death grip is to unflinchingly organize for real systemic change. In the words of Chicano political activist and Brown Beret veteran, Eddie Perez, “To their demise we must continue to ORGANIZE!” And so we shall, because we must.

A conscious people who are politically organized will ultimately, never be defeated. Get busy and stay focused in the people’s struggle!

Onward my sisters and brothers. Onward!

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/LehrerNewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.